


Malice the Blacksmith

by MagicBiscuit



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Shin Monshou no Nazo | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Genre: Gen, Post-Game(s), Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25306021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicBiscuit/pseuds/MagicBiscuit
Summary: She sighed as her purple eyes rested on her visitor sleeping in her only bed. This was familiar. Her stomach churned.It was too familiar.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Malice the Blacksmith

Malice breathed in the fresh morning air. It was refreshing. It was just what she needed to face a brand new day.

She looked back into her weapon shop. Amongst all the swords, lances and axes was a wooden basket with some yellow roses resting on her workbench. They stuck out like a sore thumb, but they wouldn't remain there for long. It was the seventh day of the week after all. She walked over to her desk and gently picked up the basket.

Malice left her shop, careful to lock the door. She picked up her watering can and set off.

The villagers always laughed when they saw her on this day. On one hand Malice could not blame them. It must be strange to see such a battle-scarred woman and blacksmith go through town with a basket full of flowers. On the other hand it irritated her. They knew perfectly well why she did this. Their mocking laugh came across as insensitive.

In the end, however, it did not matter what the village thought. Malice had every intention of doing this on the seventh day of the week. Each month and every year, until the day she could no longer physically walk. She headed for the forest.

Malice was glad to see that the forest clearing had remained clean since her last visit. There had been days, especially after storms, which had made it look like hell. She looked at the very centre of the clearing. She smiled at the tombstone that quietly looked back at her.

"It's me again." Malice said softly as she walked up to the grave. "I brought you some yellow roses this time; they'll look nice now that it's nearing summer." She crouched down with her basket and put the watering can aside. Most of the daisies she brought last time had gone dry, but some still looked okay.

With a tiny smile on her lips Malice began to swap out the dry daisies for the yellow roses. "I've had a good week," Malice told the departed, "a nobleman came an' ordered a custom sword which got me some good money." She pulled out some weeds. "Pops has sent word that he'll be comin' to visit soon; I haven't seen 'im in a while so I think it'll be nice."

Malice picked up the watering can. There was a creek nearby she could use to water the flowers. It was quiet, the only thing audible being the bird's song. Malice nodded to herself as she filled the watering can with the cold water. This was a good place for a grave.

Malice headed back and watered the flowers she just put in place. "The nobleman who ordered the sword told me somethin' interestin'" she said. Malice personally did not care for it, but she had a feeling her departed friend would. "He said that there was a rumour going around the capital; people think the Queen's pregnant."

Malice shrugged. "If it's a girl do you think they'll name her after ya?" As soon as she mentioned the possibility out loud she bit her bottom lip. That might not be possible with how the people viewed her friend and her family nowadays. Even the King himself had to be careful this early in his reign.

A sudden rustle of leaves caught Malice's attention.

Malice drew her sword and pointed it in the direction of the sound. She had every intention of protecting this grave.

The rustling grew louder. Malice tensed. Suddenly a heavily robed man appeared before her. Before she could say or do anything the man collapsed. She held her breath. The man did not move. Exhaling through her nose, she withdrew her blade and slowly approached him. She crouched down and shook the man.

"Are you all right?" Malice asked, even though she knew that was a stupid question. She rolled the man on his back. He was pale. She lifted his skinny left arm and pulled back the cloth protecting it. His skin was dry and his breathing was rapid. She inhaled sharply. The man was extremely dehydrated.

Malice gave her friend a silent apology as she lumped the strange man over her shoulder. Her visits were usually longer than this, but she had an emergency on her hands. With her free hand she picked up her basket as well as her watering can. "I'll come back next week!" Malice assured as she headed back to her shop as quickly as she could.

Malice had stripped off most of the man's heaviest robes and forced some water down his throat, but he had only opened his brown eyes briefly. The cleric Malice had gotten to check on him had said he simply needed food, water and rest. Malice rubbed her temples. He was clearly doing the resting part.

She sighed as her purple eyes rested on her visitor sleeping in her only bed. This was familiar. Her stomach churned.

It was too familiar.

_Malice looked up from the sword she was making. She could have sworn she heard a thud. She sharpened her ears as she slowly looked around her house._

_Maybe it was the rain?_

_There was another thud._

_Apparently not._

_Malice got up from her workplace. She slowly opened the door and looked out onto the street._

_A woman had collapsed right in front of her shop. The woman whimpered. She was soaked to the bone._

_Malice first thought was to simply shut the door again and leave it be. She didn't really have enough food for two._

_Slowly the woman turned her head towards Malice. Her green eyes seemed completely devoid of life. Malice tried to look the other way, but her conscience wouldn't let her. There was something familiar about the miserable woman._

_Against her better judgment Malice helped the woman get inside._

_Malice thought hard as she tried to remember who or what the lady sleeping in her bed reminded her of. She furrowed her brow. Pale as snow. Long, blonde hair. A fancy white dress and a tiara sparkling with so many gemstones that selling it would probably set anyone for life. It rang a distant bell._

_The woman slept through most of the night, leaving Malice to sleep on the floor. Her guest was clearly of noble birth. How she dressed made that obvious._

_For a brief moment Malice played with the idea of kicking her out of the bed to let her sleep on the floor, just to see how she’d like it. She shook her head. That would only be funny for five minutes at the very most. It would be pointless._

_It was only during the early hours of the morning that the woman made any sound. Malice looked up at the bed. Slowly the woman rose. She looked at her surroundings. "Where am I?" she mouthed. Her eyes landed on Malice. Malice gave her a small wave._

_There was a brief moment where the two simply blinked at one another. When the woman finally seemed to realise what was happening she shot out of bed. "I'm so terribly sorry!" she spluttered as she tripped over her own feet. Malice suppressed a laugh as she got up._

_"You saved me."_

_Malice raised an eyebrow at her guest who was slowly nibbling at the bread she gave her. "It was nothin'" Malice said. She wanted to charge the lady for the shelter, but didn't know how to bring it up. They looked at each other intently from across the table._

_Malice just couldn't shake the feeling she'd seen this lady before. Her guest spoke._

_"Have you ever been to the Millennium palace?" she asked bluntly._

_Malice scratched her head. She'd been once and gotten involved in some thieving business. She remembered getting captured by some high end general with blonde hair, only to be let go. Why did he let them go again..?_

_Malice's frown grew deeper._

_There had been a woman with the general. She had convinced him to let them go and insisted they took the palace's riches and give it to those who needed it the most. She'd been pale, blond and she had a white dress._

_Malice jumped up from her chair as the realisation hit her. She looked at her guest. "You're the former queen!" she exclaimed, "You’re that Queen Nyna from Archanea!"_

_Nyna stopped eating and grabbed into something near her chest. Malice sat back down. She wanted to ask why someone who used to be a queen was wandering about on her own, but then she remembered._

_This girl was hated by her people. They started calling her bloodline heathens. People were cheering in the streets when she abdicated. They even blamed her for her husband being off his rocker._

_A cruel thought entered Malice's head._

_If she sold off the former queen to the people that wanted her dead, wouldn't she make a lot of money? She didn't really care about what happened to the woman, but she did care about feeding herself._

_Malice was seriously starting to consider the possibility, but then she looked at her guest. There was something inherently sad about her that Malice just couldn't put her finger on. Something in the back of her head that told her the woman before her was in pain._

_There was also a matter of principles. It had been years ago and she had been in a group, but Nyna did save Malice's life way back when. Maybe it would be better to simply return the favour._

_Before Malice could make a decision one way or the other Nyna spoke up._

_"I'm headed to the mountain." she said suddenly, "I wish to look at the flowers that grow there."_

_Malice wanted to groan, but didn't. Instead she shook her head. "Well, you're not going today." she said, "Rest here for another day before you head up." She turned her attention to Nyna's uneaten loaf of bread. "Don't waste food." she ordered. Nyna quickly stuffed the bread in her mouth._

_Malice didn't hear much from her guest the following day. She ate a little and had some water, but she didn't say a word. When Malice went to check on her Nyna was alternating staring at some pendant and looking up at the mountain._

_"What's that?" Malice asked. Nyna jumped slightly and quickly hid the pendant. "It's nothing important." she said quickly. Malice raised an eyebrow. It didn't seem like nothing._

_Malice poked Nyna's cheek. "You're not doing anythin'," she said, "I know I told you to rest, but that doesn't mean you're going to leech off me, got it?"_

_Nyna looked down in shame as she got out of bed. Malice led her to the work area. What could royalty like her possibly do? She looked over at some of her newly forged weapons. Malice pushed Nyna towards them._

_"They need to be clean before we can sell 'em," she explained. "That should be easy enough to do right?" With some hesitation Nyna walked over to the weapons Malice had pointed out. She clearly had no idea of what to do._

_Malice kept an eye on Nyna as she tried to do as she was told. She was very careful with the weaponry causing her to be painfully slow. It was a sorry attempt at the very best. Malice sighed. "When ya workin' with weapons you have to expect a little cut or two" she said. "If ya goin' to do it like that then you'll be sittin' there for three days."_

_Nyna nodded to show that she understood._

_By the end of the day the girl's hands had cuts all over them and they were bleeding, but she got the job done._

_Malice handed her some bread._

_"So watcha gonna do on the mountain, other than look the flowers, I mean?"_

_Nyna grabbed her chest again. The pendant, Malice assumed. "I just looking at the flowers," Nyna said, "it's something I need to do." Malice bit into her own piece of bread. Nyna wasn't very talkative._

_"So ya like flowers then?" Malice asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going. Nyna nodded. "Someone promised me to take me to see the flowers on that mountain when he found out," Nyna trailed off and her expression darkened, "but that was a long time ago." She clutched the pendant so hard her knuckles were turning white._

_For a moment Malice wondered if she should accompany the woman up to the mountain. It wasn't the safest hike in the world. Yet again, it seemed like the trip was some emotional healing stuff. Malice wasn't good at those kinds of things. She decided not to bring it up._

_The next day Nyna was gone._

_Malice looked all around the shop, but all she found was Nyna's tiara, her pendant and a note. She picked up the note._

_"Dear Lady Malice," it read._

_"I cannot thank you enough for your kindness these past two days. Thanks to you I have regained my strength and I am headed for the mountain._

_I know you shared what little you had with me and please, I beg of you, sell the things I left behind and take that as your payment. I won't be needing them anymore._

_I'll pray you'll find someone or something that will bring great joy into your life._

_May Naga give you her greatest blessings._

_-Nyna"_

_Malice read the note again and again. She looked at the things the former queen left behind. That was one hell of a payment._

_"It's worth how much!?"_

_Malice gaped at the pawnbroker, her eyes wide with shock._

_The pawnbroker was practically drooling over the tiara in his hands. "I've never seen anything quite like it!" he exclaimed. He was like a child that just got an amazing birthday present._

_Malice felt uneasy. She could live a life of a noblewoman if she sold it. She kept staring at it. She looked down at the pendant in her hands._

_It wasn't anything special. Just a silver pendant with a pink rose on the cover. When Malice opened it, however, she found herself with a lump in her throat._

_The words "To my beloved" were engraved on the inside and there was also a lock of blonde hair attached to it. It was a darker blonde than Nyna's. Malice carefully closed it again. She thought back at how Nyna seemed to cling to the pendant like a lifeline._

_Malice took a deep breath. She couldn't bring herself to sell these items._

_She hid the tiara yet kept the pendant close by._

_Malice decided to keep an eye out for Nyna when she came back down from the mountain. The pendant was returning to its original owner no question, but if Nyna still insisted that Malice should sell the tiara then she was determined to actually earn it somehow._

_Malice wouldn't allow anything else._

_Malice spent the next three days pacing about. She asked the head of the village to keep an eye out for a blonde lady around the mountain yet she'd heard nothing as of yet. It made her restless and she couldn't get any work done. What on earth was that blue blood doing up there?_

_On the fourth day a watchman knocked on her door. He looked bored out of his skull. "You were lookin' for a blonde lady 'round the mountain, weren't you?" he asked. Malice practically jumped at him. "Did ya find her?" she asked as she shook his shoulders._

_The watchman shrugged. "We found a body." he said nonchalantly. "A lady flung herself from the top of the mountain I reckon."_

_Malice felt her entire body go cold. She knew that mountain had become popular after the war for the wrong reasons, but could it really be...?_

_She pulled out the pendant and stared at it. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding._

_Before she knew what she was doing her own legs had bolted off towards the mountain. A myriad of questions raced through her mind._

_Was it Nyna?_

_If it was, then why?_

_Would it be Malice's fault?_

_Why didn't she offer to come with the former queen?_

_Why didn't she go after her the day she left?_

_The cold dread wouldn't leave her. She found the other watchmen at the bottom of the mountain._

_She also found Nyna's dead body._

Malice squeezed her eyes shut at the memory. She remembered her own scream. She'd been horrified and angry. Horrified at the fact that a woman she'd spoken to not too long ago had taken her own life. Angry at how no one, but her seemed to care.

Malice's shoulder slumped in defeat and she hung her head making her bushy, purple hair go all over the place.

There was a groan. Malice's head shot up.

The man she'd found by Nyna's grave was awake. He looked at her cautiously.

"Where am I?" He asked.

Malice pushed all the dark emotions to the back of her mind and grinned at the man who was lying in her bed. "You're in my weapons shop." she said, "I found ya collapsed in the forest." The man frowned in confusion. Malice laughed as she went and got him some bread and water.

Malice practically shoved the food down his throat. "What's ya name?" she asked as she handed him the mug of water. The man ran a hand through his orange hair. "My name is Luthier," he said, "I'm a traveling mage."

Malice hummed as she looked over at her unfinished weapons. A mage, huh?

She turned her attention back to Luthier. "So what happened?" she asked. Luthier tapped his chin. "I was heading to a place called Khadein." he said. "It is apparently a place for magic. I intend to visit it" Luthier sighed. "On my way I met some mages with inferior magic to mine. I simply intended to show them how to improve." He huffed.

"They got so upset with my help that they began chasing me, since I had to run away I simply did not have the time to restock on supplies."

Malice threw her head back and laughed. "An arrogant sod, aren't ya?" she said. Yet the gears in her head were turning. Khadein was far away from where they were.

Maybe she could help?

"Are you certain?"

Luthier looked at the thunder tome Malice had forged and the bag of gold in shock. Malice nodded. "This is as far as I can take you." she said. "The gold should be enough to stay at the different inns on the way and the tome should be useful to a mage like you."

Luthier awkwardly accepted her gifts. "But I don't have any money." he said flatly. Malice huffed. "I didn't ask for any money, now did I?" She waved him off. "Just get to Khadein safely." her expression darkened.

_Malice gently placed the pendant back around Nyna's cold neck. Her tiara was neatly placed on her head. These were Nyna's things. Malice had no right to profit on other people's suffering. She firmly believed that._

Malice sighed.

Luthier gave her a curious look.

"The best way to pay me back is simply staying safe." She said. After a short pause she looked up at the sky.

"Just don't do anything reckless and stupid."


End file.
